iStethoscope: An iPhone App That Could Save Your Life

A new iPhone application costing just 59p from the Apple App Store could see the end of the doctor’s icon – the stethoscope, only to be replaced by a smartphone application that has been downloaded 3 million times already.

In an article by the Guardian newspaper, they say that there are reports that doctors are now ditching the stethoscope in favour of the app due to a huge increase in smartphone use around the world.

iStethoscope – created by Peter Bentley, a researcher from University College London is now available from the Apple App Store for free, which is been downloaded at the rate of 500 per day, that turns out to be around 15,000 per month.

According to Bentley, he says that smartphones are now capable of “saving lives, saving money and improving healthcare in a dramatic fashion,” and in the future could even take a patient’s blood pressure.

Although numbers are not accurate, figures from the World Health Organisation say that there are around 10 million doctors worldwide, with 2 million in China alone, and is very unlikely if 3 million of those 10 owned an iPhone or iPod Touch.